Injured Marines rehab spirits in competition

Members of the Marine Veterans team parade down the track as their team is introduced during opening ceremonies for the Marine Corps Trials on Thursday at Camp Pendleton. PAUL RODRIGUEZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Marine Corps Trials 2014

The Marine Corps Trials features the same sports as the National Warrior Games: wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball, swimming, recumbent cycling, shooting, archery, track and field. Athletes vie for top placement in individual and team sports. Participants in the trials include wounded, ill and injured Marines, medically retired Marine veterans, international service members and Navy Corpsmen. Events continue through Wednesday.

CAMP PENDLETON – Derek Liu continues to fight every day to get back the life he had before his heart suddenly stopped.

The Fullerton native, who served as a captain in the Marines, went into cardiac arrest while running a marathon and spent 58 days in a coma. When he awoke, he couldn't know he'd spend the next seven years trying to recover.

“I had no awareness of what happened,” said Liu, 31, who served nine years in the Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq as an intelligence officer. “I thought I was fine, but everything was cloudy.”

His heart stopped. There was no oxygen to his brain. Still, everything he sees is blurry and fuzzy. Words bounce as he reads. He guides his eyes by keeping his finger under the words. He struggles to speak; pushing words out from his brain. He's unsteady when he walks, and uses a folding blind cane.

“I had to relearn everything like tying my shoes,” said Liu, who graduated from Troy High School in Fullerton before going to Officers Candidate School in Quantico, Va.

“It was frustrating mentally. I knew how to do things, but my fingers wouldn't work.”

Liu wasn't going to be stopped. He worked at rehabilitating himself. He began thinking of competing again. The Marine Corps Trials on Thursday gave him that opportunity.

Liu was among more than 300 ill or injured Marines and allied service members who attended the opening ceremonies of the fourth-annual Marine Corps Trials at Camp Pendleton. The event is put on by the Wounded Warrior Regiment, based at Quantico. The regiment works with Marines and their families to adapt and overcome illnesses and injuries.

The Marine Corps Trials is an 8-sport Paralympic-style invitational event made up of wounded, ill and injured Marines and international wounded warriors. Athletes on Thursday represented Australia, Canada, Colombia, France, Georgia, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Athletes walked onto the track carrying their national flag at the Semper Fit Paige Field House and Track and Field. Two helicopters flew over the ceremony to open the games.

Athletes in the competition include amputees, cancer patients and those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The athletes are being trained by world-class coaches.

“We'll see the best of our 9/11 generation,” said Col. Willy Buhl, commanding officer of the Wounded Warrior Regiment.

“They're out of the hospitals and barracks and competing in uniform. These men and women are still in the fight. It's about what they can do, not what they can't do,” Buhl said.

Liu is ready.

This is his fourth go-round and he has signed up for cycling, track and swimming. He will compete individually and as part of the Marine Corps veterans' team.

What scares him most is staying in his lanes.

“I kind of notice myself drifting,” Liu said. “I have to use my mental power to stay on the track.”

The trials have given Liu back a sense of self.

“I've been working at rehab, but it never ends,” he said.

“That's both good and bad. Good because I'm still healing, but bad because I don't see progress every day. But the trial lets me feel more proud of myself, and it doesn't let the injury change everything about me,” he said.

Members of the Marine Veterans team parade down the track as their team is introduced during opening ceremonies for the Marine Corps Trials on Thursday at Camp Pendleton. PAUL RODRIGUEZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Battalion West team stand at attention as Derek Liu, who is visually impaired, and other members of the Marine Veterans team take their seat during the opening ceremonies of the Marine Corp Trials at Camp Pendleton on Thursday. PAUL RODRIGUEZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Members of the Marine Corps Wounded Warriors Battalion East stand at attention as the National Anthem is played during the opening ceremonies for the Marine Corps Trials at Camp Pendleton on Thursday. PAUL RODRIGUEZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Derek Liu, who served as a captain in the Marines, is visually impaired and will be competing for the Marine Veterans team in track and field, swimming and cycling during the Marine Corps Trials at Camp Pendleton. PAUL RODRIGUEZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Wounded warriors from Georgia, France and Colombia, from left, wait to be introduced during opening ceremonies for the Marine Corps Trials on Thursday at Camp Pendleton. Teams from nine countries are on hand this year to compete in seven sports. PAUL RODRIGUEZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Marine Corps Wounded Warriors Battalion West walk down the track as they are introduced during opening ceremonies for the Marine Corp Trials on Thursday. There are 200 Marine Corps Wounded Warriors who will be competing in the games. PAUL RODRIGUEZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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